Thursday, May 26, 2016

Lucy Campion, a ladies’ maid turned printer’s apprentice in
17th-century London, is crossing Holborn Bridge over the vilest portion of the
River Fleet one morning when she encounters a distraught young woman, barely
able to speak and clad only in a blood-spattered nightdress. The woman has no
memory of who she is or what’s happened to her, and the townspeople believe
she’s posessed. But Lucy is concerned for the woman’s well-being and takes her
to a physician. When, shockingly, the woman is identified as the daughter of a
nobleman, Lucy is asked to temporarily give up her bookselling duties to
discreetly serve as the woman’s companion while she remains under the
physician’s care. As the woman slowly recovers, she begins-with Lucy’s help-to
reconstruct the terrible events that led her to Holborn Bridge that morning.
But when it becomes clear the woman’s safety might still be at risk, Lucy
becomes unwillingly privy to a plot with far-reaching social implications, and
she’ll have to decide how far she’s willing to go to protect the young woman in
her care.

My thoughts:

A Death Along the River Fleet is the first book I have read
by Susanna Calkins and probably the first historical fiction book I have read
that takes place soon after the great London fire. The title of the book, the
cover and the premise really drew me in. I was completely absorbed in the story
from the very beginning.

I’d have to say that Lucy Campion is now one of my favorite
female heroines. She is strong, intelligent, wise even. I love her process of
thought and her desire to help people. The fact that she works as a printer’s
apprentice helps a great deal too! Also, how the people around her respond to
her is fascinating. Really strong character development here.

There are solid historical aspects to this story and I was
thrilled with the intrigue! How the story unfolded and how the clues were
stacking up was brilliant! This is about the best mystery story I have read in
a long time. I really can’t say enough great things about this book. I highly
recommend it. Now I will be sure to go back and read the other three books that
came before this one!

Rated: Five Stars!

I obtained a copy of this book through NetGalley for an
honest review.

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

I have been over the moon about the titles I have been spotting
lately. Who am I kidding, I’m always over the moon when it comes to books. One
of my greatest frustrations as an avid reader is finding more time in the day
to read. I know many of you can relate. So why am I tempting you all with great
looking book?! Because I can’t help myself and I am so excited about theses, I
had to share!

Here are just a few of the books I have an eye on hundreds!
Maybe thousands. But who’s counting? All these titles are available to purchase
on Amazon. I hope you enjoy!

London, 1885. Three years before the Whitechapel killings,
London is a city of fog and darkness. A severed head is dredged from the
Thames; ten miles away, a woman's body is discovered on Edgeware Road. The
famed American detective William Pinkerton is summoned by Scotland Yard to
investigate. The dead woman fits the description of a grifter Pinkerton had
been pursuing for a long time--someone he believed would lead him to a man he
has been hunting since his father's death.

Edward Shade is an industrialist without a past, a fabled
con, a thief of other men's futures--he seems a ghost, a man of smoke. The
obsessive hunt for him that began in the last days of the Civil War becomes
Pinkerton's inheritance. What follows is an epic journey of secrets, deceit,
and betrayals. Above all, it is the story of the most unlikely of bonds:
between Pinkerton, the greatest detective of his age, and Shade, the one
criminal he cannot outwit.

Steven Price's By Gaslight is a riveting, atmospheric
portrait of a man on the brink. Moving from the diamond mines of South Africa
to the fog-enshrouded streets of Victorian London, the novel is a journey into
a cityscape of grief, trust, and its breaking, where what we share can bind us
even against our better selves.

In the tradition of The Paris Wife and Mrs. Poe, The Other
Einstein offers us a window into a brilliant, fascinating woman whose light was
lost in Einstein's enormous shadow. tTis is the story of Einstein's wife, a
brilliant physicist in her own right, whose contribution to the special theory
of relativity is hotly debated and may have been inspired by her own profound
and very personal insight.

Mitza Maric has always been a little different from other
girls. Most twenty-year-olds are wives by now, not studying physics at an elite
Zurich university with only male students trying to outdo her clever
calculations. But Mitza is smart enough to know that, for her, math is an
easier path than marriage. And then fellow student Albert Einstein takes an
interest in her, and the world turns sideways. Theirs becomes a partnership of
the mind and of the heart, but there might not be room for more than one genius
in a marriage.

After her father dies, March Middleton has to move to London
to live with her guardian, Sidney Grice, the country’s most famous private
detective.

It is 1882 and London is at its murkiest yet most vibrant,
wealthiest yet most poverty-stricken. No sooner does March arrive than a case
presents itself: a young woman has been brutally murdered, and her husband is
the only suspect. The victim’s mother is convinced of her son-in-law’s
innocence, and March is so touched by her pleas she offers to cover Sidney’s
fee herself.

The investigations lead the pair to the darkest alleys of
the East End: every twist leads Sidney Grice to think his client is guilty; but
March is convinced that he is innocent. Around them London reeks with the
stench of poverty and gossip, the case threatens to boil over into civil unrest
and Sidney Grice finds his reputation is not the only thing in mortal danger.

Political unrest permeates York at the cusp of the fifteenth
century, as warring factions take sides on who should be the rightful
king--Richard II or his estranged, powerful cousin in exile, Henry Bolingbroke.
Independent minded twenty-year-old Kate Clifford is struggling to dig out from
beneath the debt left by her late husband. Determined to find a way to be
secure in her own wealth and establish her independence in a male dominated
society, Kate turns one of her properties near the minster into a guest house
and sets up a business. In a dance of power, she also quietly rents the
discreet bedchambers to the wealthy, powerful merchants of York for nights with
their mistresses.

But the brutal murder of a mysterious guest and the
disappearance of his companion for the evening threatens all that Kate has
built. Before others in town hear word of a looming scandal, she must call upon
all of her hard-won survival skills to save herself from ruin.

In pre-war Prague, the dreams of two young lovers are shattered when they are separated by the Nazi invasion. Then, decades later, thousands of miles away in New York, there's an inescapable glance of recognition between two strangers...

Providence is giving Lenka and Josef one more chance. From the glamorous ease of life in Prague before the Occupation, to the horrors of Nazi Europe, The Lost Wife explores the power of first love, the resilience of the human spirit- and the strength of memory.

Be sure to check out my wish-list 5 on Layered Pages this month by clicking here

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A Little Glimpse About Me

Welcome to Layered pages! I am delighted that you are here. At Layered Pages you will find all sorts of great posts. My name is Stephanie Hopkins and I have been book blogging since 2012 or there about. I was formally on the indieBRAG Team for five years and helped promote the B.R.A.G. Medallion, I was a short-list judge for the 2016 Historical Novel Society indie award. I have reviewed books for the Historical Novel Society, I review for various Publishing Houses, NetGalley and indie authors. I am an avid reader of Historical Fiction, American History, Alternate History, Non-Fiction, Crime Thrillers, and Mystery. I have several writing projects under way and I am always buried in research. When I am not pursuing my obsession of books, research, writing, chatting with fellow books lovers and authors-which is pretty much 24/7-I enjoy creating mix media art on canvas, fitness and I love the outdoors! These days I have no idea what rest is!